Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co., a Phillipsburg, N.J.-based division of McWane Inc. of Alabama, was sentenced in late April to pay a fine of $8 million for violations of environmental and worker safety (OSHA) laws as well as obstructing the federal investigation of its conduct.

U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper for the District of New Jersey also sentenced the company to serve four years of probation, during which it will be subject to oversight by a court-appointed monitor. The monitor will report twice annually to the court on the company’s lawful operation and adherence to environmental and worker health and safety regulations.

Judge Cooper also required an additional condition of probation that specific top managers at the Phillipsburg plant and at McWane headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama—including the chairman and president—read the entire transcripts from the sentencings of the four managers who were convicted along with the company.

The sentencing of the company followed the sentencings of four former Atlantic States managers to federal prison terms ranging from 70 months in the case of former plant manager John Prisque to 30 months for former finishing department manager Craig Davidson. Also sentenced were former Atlantic States maintenance superintendent Jeffrey Maury to 46 months, and former human resources manager Scott Faubert to 41 months.

“These sentences mete out just punishment for the company and its employees’ disregard of the law which was demonstrated during the longest environmental crimes trial in this country’s history for multiple violations of worker safety and environmental protection laws,” said Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli. “This case should serve as an example for company execs and plant operations managers—ignoring environmental laws and disregard for workers’ lives and limbs will be met with prosecution and stiff sentences including multi-million dollar fines and prison time.”

“These sentences show that senior managers, as well as companies, will be prosecuted when they break the law,” said Catherine McCabe, Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The managers had an obligation to run the facility safely and legally; instead, they committed environmental crimes that polluted the air and water.”

“The jail time imposed against the Atlantic States managers and the $8 million fine imposed on the company send a clear message of zero tolerance to employers who choose to disregard their basic, legal obligation to protect the safety and health of their workers,” says Robert D. Kulick, OSHA Regional Administrator in New York. “OSHA will continue to take action, alone and in partnership with other agencies, to bring to justice those companies and executives who blatantly violate worker safety and health laws and endanger their employees.”

Following a seven-month trial, a jury on April 26, 2006 convicted Atlantic States and the four managers of engaging in an eight-year conspiracy to pollute the air and Delaware River in violation of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, expose its employees to dangerous conditions, and impede and obstruct federal regulatory and criminal investigations. A fifth defendant was acquitted at trial.

The jury verdicts affirmed the government’s charges that Atlantic States and the managers regularly discharged oil and other pollutants into the Delaware River, willfully polluted the air and rigged emissions tests, concealed serious worker injuries from health and safety inspectors, and maintained a dangerous workplace that contributed to multiple injuries, including severe burns, broken bones and amputations and the death of one employee at the Phillipsburg plant. The company and individual defendants also were convicted of obstructing environmental and worker safety investigations.